Do rating models embody correctly the impact of macroeconomic variables on debtors’ solvency, determining a lag in downgrading? In pre-crisis periods, when interest rates increases are recorded as well as decreases in real growth rates, rating assessments fail to register risk increases in...

Otc derivatives Counterparty risk has assumed a fundamental role within the risks assumed by Sifis, Sistemically Important Financial Institutions. Different Counterparty risk management procedures have been introduced by regulatory provisions and market best practices. Moreover, the European...

In Italy the use of bond covenants is restrained by the predominance of SMEs, the significant role of relationship banking, the high costs related to public placements, the lack of investors‘ financial culture, the low amount of loans normally requested by each firm and the lack of liquidity...

This paper aims to stress the importance of market liquidity for the stability of the financial system, emphasizing the pivotal role played by liquidity risk in the development of the current financial crisis, pointing out the flaws of regulation and supervision and stressing the need for their...

The Islamic banking has been transformed over the last three decades in a sector of significant size, although the theoretical basis for this innovative method of finance are still poorly known in most Western countries. In Europe, Great Britain has gained the more significant experience in the...

The Basel Agreements, designed to pursue financial stability, have been instead a cause of instability, revealing fundamental analytical and operational weaknesses. The idea to define a constant capital ratio through complex statistical models implies serious dangers. A radical change is...

The financial crisis and the proposed changes in bank regulation seem to have inverted the trend of declining capital ratios and lower quality capital base which emerged from 2005 to 2007, especially for large Italian listed banks, and have stopped the generous dividend payouts. The recent...

The article examines the determinants of capital-assets ratios for credit unions in the United States, before and after the implementation of current framework for capital adequacy regulation in the year 2000. Credit unions appear to hold capital in excess of what is required by current capital...

The establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is part of the Us financial system reform project and has been strongly supported by the Obama administration to streamline the existing rules and to realize consumer financial education and protection after the crisis. It testifies,...

The conclusions of the Vickers Report, broadly accepted by the Uk government, put the country on the forefront of the reform movement affecting banking supervision. The traditional British light regulatory touch, this time, has given way to a decisive crackdown, mainly due to the effects of the...